In Deutsch patent Nos. 4,147,480, 4,147,481 and 4,280,909 there is disclosed a member having generally tapered voids or holes extending therethrough to enhance flow of fluids. The Deutsch device is made possible by using commercially available filters which have hole sizes which approach gas molecule sized diameters and which have been tapered by etching on one end to provide the taper. Statistically, gas molecules can enter the large end of the hole more easily than the small end and the flow is enhanced in the direction from the large end to the small end. Deutsch refers to this as the "Edge Effect" in an article entitled "Can the Second Law of Thermodynamics Be Circumvented?," American Laboratory, May, 1981. Deutsch discloses that the tapered voids make possible very favorable effusional resistances and thus should be very useful in decreasing or possibly eliminating the energy required to circulate fluids. The member of Deutsch has a ratio of hole size to gas molecule diameter which is relatively low and the gas flow is from the large end to the small end of the hole.
The conventional flat-plate metering orifice is commonly used for measuring fluid flow. This orifice consists of a flat plate with a single, carefully machined hole extending therethrough, usually about half the diameter of the pipe in which the orifice is located. Pressure taps are installed upstream and downstream of the orifice at prescribed distances and a differential pressure gauge is installed between the two taps. The measured diameters of the pipe and orifice, combined with the differential pressure measurement, are the principle quantities used to calculate the mass rate of flow of a given fluid.
The metering orifice is usually made with a short cylindrical section and then the trailing edge is beveled at an angle of 45.degree.. The cylindrical section has a length of 0.01 to 0.02 times the pipe diameter, which is so short it is often considered a knife edge. The short cylindrical section is used so that the diameter of this section will accurately relate to the flow, which would not be the case if the orifice were a long cylinder. The beveled trailing edge makes it possible to use a thicker orifice plate, which is more resistant to distortion, and still have a short cylindrical hole with a square leading edge.
The angle on the beveled portion of a metering orifice must be only large enough for the flow to separate from it; otherwise the angle on the bevel is not critical. A conventional flat-plate metering orifice even as small as 10 mm has a hole surface area to hole volume ratio that is approximately two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the present invention and further is not arranged in pluralities to provide a high density of biasing surfaces for altering the distribution of gas molecule vectors.
There are no known prior art methods or apparatus that are specifically directed to upsetting or altering the normal molecular velocity vector distribution of a flowing gas so that more molecules go in the direction of gas flow. This may also be referred to as biasing or vectoring more gas molecules in the direction of flow.